The Accidental Marriage: Chapter 46

A cloudless blue sky stretches over a verdant field full of flowers and the scent of fermenting grapes and grass. This is Ares’s and my second ceremony. It’s only fair to have our friends and family witness our renewed commitment to each other.

Ares is so handsome in a black-and-white tux. The formal wear fits his broad shoulders and thickly muscled body perfectly. My knight in satin armor.

I’m wearing a white backless dress. I’ve never worn anything like it before, but it seems fitting. After all, the scar doesn’t make me ugly. Ares is right. It’s a physical sign of my bravery back then. And honestly, I think it marked me as his, just as the scar he got from the same fire marks him as mine.

Ares’s family beams with approval. Prescott slips Jeremiah five hundred dollars. He apparently wagered that “Queen” wasn’t real, and Jeremiah said she was. Jeremiah’s smile is extra wide. The woman loves to win. But Prescott doesn’t seem too upset as he sits with a hand swiping over eyes that are glistening with tears.

My friends Lucie and Yuna join us, along with Catherine Fairchild, who’s decided to champion my career. Even Barron Sterling shows up with his girlfriend Stella Lloyd, which causes quite a stir. Apparently, the elderly billionaire art connoisseur is capricious, private and autocratic. But he gives a great hug.

When the singer sings Sinatra’s “Love Is Here to Stay,” Ares and I have our first dance. Our lives are only going to get better.